ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

jromanbaker This review gets away from the Lesbian content, and mentions a little more about the director Robert Aldrich. There are famous commentators on the cinema that make claims on his decline towards the end of his career. The Killing of Sister George is put into the same category as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. This I do not agree with (discounting Baby Jane and its own self-contained effectively Gothic world) as I believe Aldrich returns in Sister George to the same emotional depths of pain and endurance as films like Autumn Leaves and above all The Big Knife (perhaps his greatest masterpiece). In The Big Knife, an actor is burnt out of the media system in a similar way; Coral Browne as Rod Steiger. Even the howl of utter anguish at the end is similar if not the same as the cry of horror that Ida Lupino gives in The Big Knife. And the physical abuse that lovers inflict on each other: the cigar butt eating scene in Sister George mirrors the crashing of the typewriter on Joan Crawford's hands in Autumn Leaves. The Aldrich vision is stark and seemingly cold; but it is the burning coldness of fire. This is rightly a bold film on Lesbianism. It is an Aldrich view of it, as mental illness was in Autumn Leaves, and the picture of both are of their time. What is timeless is the consistency of vision and the contemplation of a flawed humanity

wadechurton Firstly, it's not about lesbians per se; it's about these two particular lesbians and the final days of their long, twisted relationship. More importantly, it's about one woman's slow, sad self-destruction. 'TKoSG' was based on a stage play, but rest assured the movie is a satisfyingly 'cinematic' experience, realised with skillful editing and excellent direction. Amazing that director Robert Aldritch went from macho WW2 caper 'The Dirty Dozen' to this female-dominated character-driven 'small-scale' movie. 'TKoSG' bears repeated watching to catch the subtler portents. George is monstrous but not a monster; though petty and self-obsessed to the point of becoming oblivious to the spiraling degeneration of her personal and professional life. The most complex, enigmatic character is George's TV boss Mercy Croft, who a first seems disconcertingly snooty, condescending and unpleasant. In fact, it is the widowed Mrs Croft who (arguably) acts with the most genuine humanity; instantly recognising an abusive relationship and making moves to rescue Alice from it. She constantly endeavours –until finally pushed too far- to break bad news with sensitivity and treat George with due respect, including lining her up a new job. Even the blatant display of homosexual affection at the Gateways Club barely fazes her. Her only miscalculation is that she does not fully see Alice for the unstable, pathologically dependent person she is. While some of the more superficial elements have become dated, the great acting (including the smaller roles) remains a pleasure. Only Susannah York lets the side down just a little with an occasionally self-conscious performance. Also, it may be just me; but the (deliberately?) garish manner in which George's prostitute friend is presented gives an oddly 'David Lynch' vibe (that's not completely unwelcome, though). The ending, when George finally realises just what has happened and how, is unforgettable. All in all, a very entertaining, emotionally engaging movie from the late 1960s with only a thin dusting of 'quaint' to show for all those years. And for aficionados there's the bonus of some truly groovy neo-psychedelic soundtrack music at the Gateways Club party.

TheLurkingFox I am very interested in pre-Stonewall gay life, and as such I was delighted to see this film. However, if I found it historically and cinematographically interesting, I didn't enjoy it per se. The George character is a lesbian that doesn't care to hide that she's a lesbian. She's not apologetic, which is good, but she also displays a certain number of traits which make it very difficult to like her: she seems to have no understanding of social norms or play. She's unable to conduct herself like an adult. She interrupts people at the bad moment, yells on her girlfriend and insults her in front of everyone, etc etc. She gets drunk all the time, and is a mean drunk. Why is she like that? You'll have the greatest difficulties to convince me that it is not some homophobic logic behind. Just the way the scene in the bar is filmed you understand from where the movie comes from: It is a film made by a heterosexual man for a (60s) heterosexual public. It is not by chance that she ends up alone, drunk and desperate. (read: The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo...) In the end, I had heard that The Killing of Sister George and The Boys in the Band were two very homophobic movies made in the late 60s presenting gay people as desperate souls. I saw TBITB, and it went directly in my top 10 of all times movies, and I can argue against anyone who tells me it is homophobic. I tried to have the same take on TKSG, but I couldn't. While TBITB is a gay movie made by a gay man (not Friedkin, but Crowley) with gay people and for gay people (it used to be a play on Broadway), TKSG is a straight movie played by straight actors for a straight audience, and pretending to portray the life of lesbians as it is but failing miserably.

Tony Patriarche I don't give many movies 10/10, but this black comedy-drama gets my vote, for fine acting, production values, and of course its place in movie history in the frank portrayal of lesbian relationships.Others have & will comment on the latter, so I'll point out some of the other aspects of this fine film. The combination of comedy with personal tragedy poses difficult problems both for the writer & director; here they both succeed brilliantly.The three principals' performances are riveting. I particularly liked the ambiguity of Coral Brown's portrayal of Mercy Croft; watch her carefully in the tight closeups in the gay club, and notice how the down-turned mouth at times hides a hint of a self-satisfied smile.The cinematography deserves special mention. The use of colour is beautiful; I was reminded of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", but it never steps over the line into unreality. On the contrary, the alleys of London, the TV studio and above all the stairs and corridor of the flat are supremely realistic. Most unusual is the use of chiaroscuro, the interplay of light-and-shadow, seldom seen outside of black & white films. In so many colour films the light appears to come from some amorphous omnidirectional source out of science fiction; great for lighting everything and everybody evenly, but unrealistic and DULL. Look at the shadows as Beryl Reid ('George') enters the apartment building and climbs the stairs, or in some of the bedroom scenes. Apart from its other many virtues, this movie held my attention as a fine piece of film-making.All in all, a masterpiece; my one regret is that it was shown on TV in pan-and-scan. It IS now available in DVD - in several formats & regions - so I look forward to watching it again in its original form.